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Have you ever been alone in the dark with only your cherished Diamond wishing you had a better light source than its dark theme can provide? It certainly happened to me, and here is the solution: Flashlight.
Why a new such program when a few freeware already exist? Well, this one is TOTALLY finger friendly.
While in the main screen, drag your finger upwards to increase the light or downwards to decrease it.
The program can also be used as an emergency beacon, flashing two colors. To set the colors, again move your finger (horizontally this time) on the red, green or blue markers. The settings are saved on exit.
Compact Framework 3.5 needed!
Update 24/08/08 v 1.1
Added SOS function. This uses Color1 from Options.
Update 29/08/08 v 1.2:
Added menu item to disable Auto backlight. This allows to get maximum luminosity. The program will remeber the setting. When exiting, it will restore your backlight to what it was before.
To use this facility with the best results, do the following:
Start -> Settings -> System -> Power -> Backlight
Uncheck Auto adjust backlight
Slide both cursors to maximum
Check Auto adjust backight
Now start flashlight, go to Options, click on Auto backlight (to uncheck it) and your device shoud have maximum light. Don't worry, it will go back to Auto when you leave the program (or whatever setting you had before you ran it).
Looks very nice and convenient especially for users who don't have flash on their devices; downloading now.
I needed this thanks!
does your tool set the backlight to the maximum or just fill the screen with a color?
Haha, very nice/funny app. Ive never used a cellphone as a flashlight. But hey, im gonna install this one. I like it
ageye said:
does your tool set the backlight to the maximum or just fill the screen with a color?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just fills the screen. Quite honestly, I don't know how to change the backlight, but if you have any pointers I'll try.
Really useful for me
Would it be possible to use vertical dragging to change the flashing speed ?
Timbermill said:
Really useful for me
Would it be possible to use vertical dragging to change the flashing speed ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting idea. I can do that...
You need to find a way to disable the light sensor and adjust to the max brightness for this to work efficiently.
why i can not have white light without flashing? if i disable flashing i get a grey light
flashing OK, i choose red and white
KukurikU said:
why i can not have white light without flashing? if i disable flashing i get a grey light
flashing OK, i choose red and white
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to slide your finger upwards...
Can you make it flash SOS it could be usefull in an emergency...
I think it is 3 short 3 long 3 short flashes...
There is also another flashlight app. It called 'pLamp'. Version 1.5 is compatible with VGA. Google for it. It's freeware. Works great on my diamond.
aydc said:
You need to find a way to disable the light sensor and adjust to the max brightness for this to work efficiently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I realize that. Changing the backlight is not API implemented though as it is hardware dependent. I've been googling it for a couple of hours already and no luck yet.
so use registry?
to disable the light sensor
HKCU\ControlPanel\Backlight\LightDetectOn
set it to 0->Sensor is off (will change immediatly)
this should make it ways brighter
don't know which key adjusts the brightness level but you may set Battery-Brightness-level to max and enable Lightsensor. So if you now disable it, you have max brightness
works well for me, jsut implement it in your app and i'll be very happy
Update to v 1.1: added SOS function. Download in first post.
kikakeule said:
so use registry?
to disable the light sensor
HKCU\ControlPanel\Backlight\LightDetectOn
set it to 0->Sensor is off (will change immediatly)
this should make it ways brighter
don't know which key adjusts the brightness level but you may set Battery-Brightness-level to max and enable Lightsensor. So if you now disable it, you have max brightness
works well for me, jsut implement it in your app and i'll be very happy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with changing the registry is that it won't update the brightness until a soft reset, unless I'm mistaken.
yes yes yes turn backlight for max is more usefull then plenty of colours, btw 9 basic colours will be enough and still finger friendly... but still nice app
pedmond said:
Try to slide your finger upwards...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
multzumesc! thank you..it's all in the finger...lol
pedmond said:
The problem with changing the registry is that it won't update the brightness until a soft reset, unless I'm mistaken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just try it yourself
after changing the key the sensor will be deactivated immediatly
no soft reset needed
and with the workaround I posted early you will get max brightness very easyly
but even without the workaround this will increase brightness massivly as the main usability of a flashlight is to enlightend darkness and the sensor dimms the display to minimum in darkness^^
Hi All,
Xperia's hardware keyboard is very good, and the backlight is really of help when the ambient goes dark or even darker.
The HW keyboard is also quite cool in the daylight, the buttons' surface letters are very clear and crisp.
But here we have, an especial feature: needless automatic backlight, in spite of bright (or not so) day light? The letters become blurry not to say hardly visible. Not to mention this is wasting battery, too.
Is there a way to turn off the HW keyboard backlight, when it's not needed?
XDA gurus, help our batteries live longer and us users type faster! Please...
I hear you!
Yeah i've noticed the same problem, so ive started making a program to set the brightness etc, ive interrogated the registry for the backlight and have a small app working now whare all the brighness levels and timmings etc can be modified.
I was going to add a menu on the progam to changes the settings based on time of day / profile used on the phone, the rogram would need to be ran in the backgroud all the time but im sure it would not drain the battery much to do this as its a lightweight process that will wait for the profile to change.
I can put up what ive done, its very simple and you can suggest improvments / whatever.
Main functions would be:
allow user to change settings based on their currently selected sound profile (on, vibrate, off) and they have individual settings.
Allow the user to change all backlight related values (I have 11 of them editable in my program currently.
I would like this to have the keyboard light off during the day really as the keyboard light coming on makes it hard to see keys during the day.
awshanks said:
Yeah i've noticed the same problem, so ive started making a program to set the brightness etc, ive interrogated the registry for the backlight and have a small app working now whare all the brighness levels and timmings etc can be modified.
I was going to add a menu on the progam to changes the settings based on time of day / profile used on the phone, the rogram would need to be ran in the backgroud all the time but im sure it would not drain the battery much to do this as its a lightweight process that will wait for the profile to change.
I can put up what ive done, its very simple and you can suggest improvments / whatever.
Main functions would be:
allow user to change settings based on their currently selected sound profile (on, vibrate, off) and they have individual settings.
Allow the user to change all backlight related values (I have 11 of them editable in my program currently.
I would like this to have the keyboard light off during the day really as the keyboard light coming on makes it hard to see keys during the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds promising! Can you post your app? I would like to try it out.
Here you go...
It just modifies timers and sensors on/off at the minute, but its a start. I made it to give better control over the backlight for myself, happy to help others!
Thanks Andrew! Longlive Ireland!
awshanks said:
It just modifies timers and sensors on/off at the minute, but its a start. I made it to give better control over the backlight for myself, happy to help others!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, bud!
So Features
What do you want it to do?
look better? YES , lol!
i was going to use tab screen to seperate out the info, there are some more values to add that can be changed, i need to group them together (eg ac and battery ones) and have a proper explanation on them (input value limit etc.)
So let me know what are the features you would like (in order of priority) and i will get cracking, lets see if we can make a good little app here.
By now I only wanted the app to turn off keyboard completely. Hope the author will succeed in that. Though I'm afraid the HW keyboard backlight settings are hardware related issue solely, nothing to do with registry/driver routine.
All the other settings are quite handy to play with the backlight of the device. Perhaps a bit more detailed instructions and explanations will be just fine.
Yet the 'About' and 'Copyright' options, maybe some easter eggs - without it the prog is a no-go
Have you tried adding the key HKCU\Software\SonyEricsson\Illumination\QWERTYBrightness ? I found this one when digging into the illumination application.
This will override the automatic brightness values for the keyboard, setting it to a fixed brightness when the light sensor turns it on.
I've set mine to 50, which works fine even if the light goes on at daylight.
Thanks bro, this is very useful hint!
I noticed also, that with '50' (it's not 'key' actually, but a 'value', I input this as a REG_SZ value), light sensor works with HW keyboard much better, more adequate - no backlight when in sunlight or electric lamps at home or in office, slightly dimmer backlight when in the dark. That must save battery life too!
on8a said:
Have you tried adding the key HKCU\Software\SonyEricsson\Illumination\QWERTYBrightness ? I found this one when digging into the illumination application.
This will override the automatic brightness values for the keyboard, setting it to a fixed brightness when the light sensor turns it on.
I've set mine to 50, which works fine even if the light goes on at daylight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odeon said:
Thanks bro, this is very useful hint!
I noticed also, that with '50' (it's not 'key' actually, but a 'value', I input this as a REG_SZ value), light sensor works with HW keyboard much better, more adequate - no backlight when in sunlight or electric lamps at home or in office, slightly dimmer backlight when in the dark. That must save battery life too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's may seems silly but i cant find "HKCU\Software\SonyEricsson\Illumination\QWERTYBrightness"
I found only patters and default....
Could please help?
you shall create this parameter if it isn't available.
Odeon said:
you shall create this parameter if it isn't available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did and it worked! thanks
But still, isnt there anyway to turn it off?
I am finding the screen difficult to read outdoors. Checking time when on my walk, selecting playlists etc. I realise this is the characteristic of the screen technology rather than a phone fault - I have the same problem with the screen on my DSLR camera.
Two questions -
Is there a registry tweak to increase the actual maximum brightness beyond the maximum in Settings? Battery life is of secondary importance for me.
I have read posts discussing G-light and Lumos to improve auto adjustment. I don't think any of these would help me. I would prefer a quickly accessible manual swith with two positions - Indoors, Outdoors.
Has anybody seen anything like this?
Joe
hi
got ur setting>system>power ie click on the battery icon inside that un chek the auto adjust back light and set it as per ur liking
jfranek said:
I am finding the screen difficult to read outdoors. Checking time when on my walk, selecting playlists etc. I realise this is the characteristic of the screen technology rather than a phone fault - I have the same problem with the screen on my DSLR camera.
Two questions -
Is there a registry tweak to increase the actual maximum brightness beyond the maximum in Settings? Battery life is of secondary importance for me.
I have read posts discussing G-light and Lumos to improve auto adjustment. I don't think any of these would help me. I would prefer a quickly accessible manual swith with two positions - Indoors, Outdoors.
Has anybody seen anything like this?
Joe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know where/how to adjust the backlight brightness.
My question was if I can tweak the registry to increase the screen brightness even further when the slider is on full bright setting.
Because the auto adjustment is not working for me, and adjusting the brightness through the menus involves six clicks (taps), I would like to have a widget??? to do it with one tap. An icon which will alternate between 'indoor' and 'outdoor' presets everytime it is tapped.
Joe
jfranek said:
I know where/how to adjust the backlight brightness. My question was if I can tweak the registry to increase the screen brightness even further when the slider is on full bright setting.
(...)
Joe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never heard/read about such an option, therefore: No, AFAIK.
Thanks, my hopes were not very high for this, but no harm in asking.
Joe
One minor niggle about the HD2 is that, while the auto backlight control is fairly good, instead of going from 10% to 100% depending on conditions, it won't go above 80% (I don't think) and certainly won't go below 30%, which is a bit too bright for artificial light, and much too bright for use in darkness.
So, as a quick work-around, I've added a start-menu short-cut to Windows\powerexe.exe - this lets me switch between auto and manual backlight fairly quickly. But it's still one more click than I think should be necessary: you launch powerexe, then have to click the "backlight" button. There must be a way of jumping straight into the backlight screen, because if you go manila settings/sound and display/backlight it jumps you straight there. Can I do that from a short-cut?
(bump)
Anyone?
I think the idea if flawed from the start, as a crucial aspect to battery life like backlight optimization cannot be so hard to adjust, and so "blind" as to limit the variation span between two values so far from the extremes.
In my experience the minimum is 40%, as putting my finger in front of the light sensor (which should be the one near the proximity sensor), I notice no decrease in light intensity when compared to manually setting value to 40%.
Also, the fact that we are forced to change the backlight in steps of 10% is simply silly. On my Ipaq I could fine-tune it as much as I needed, and actually my current manual setting of 20% is brighter than I'd like, but 10% is really too dark.
Also, what's the matter with the fact of being unable to completely set the light almost to off? If reading an ebook with white text on black background, a 5% value could be virtually enough.
Just found this during my crawling sessions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450318
I was thinking of trying g-light, but haven't got round to it yet
http://www.ageye.de/index.php?s=glight/about
I've been using Lumos, Theemed has posted the link.
It's good and very configurable.
Apparently G-Light desn't work (well it does, but the interface is extremely slow, it will only respond to a click every 5 seconds or so, making it a nightmare to configure). Let's try Lumos.
While I appreciate all the alternative suggestions, I would still quite like an answer to my original question.
Well, it seems nobody has the answer to whether powerexe can be launched directly to the backlight page...
However in your first post you were complaining about how auto backlight was operating, and it turns out that Lumos does exactly what you'd want. You can set the min and max backlight level, and even tweak the light sensor reading vs BL level curve if you want to.
So isn't that even better?
Personally I was happy with the default auto backlight, but was also looking for a way to easily force it to full power for watching photos or videos. I was also launching powerexe with a shortcut to do it, hence my interest in the thread... Lumos lets you set "exceptions", so I simply set that Coreplayer, Resco photo viewer and HTC album force baclkight to 10. I don't even have to do anything anymore now, all automatic
@shasarak
I know how you feel That's how I felt when I needed to somehow obtain cut/copy/paste functions using the standard htc keyboard, and everyone insisted I chose another keyboard, and at last someone pointed me to the "text edit" function on startbutton-hold found in Quickmenu. Maybe inelegant workaround, but now I can do what I need without changing keyboard, a satisfying compromise.
So well, I discovered Lumos during the same session I noticed your thread, and now that I've been using it since last time, I can say it's definitely effective!
my969 said:
I've been using Lumos, Theemed has posted the link.
It's good and very configurable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My experience with Lumos was it will cause problem to the G-Sensor. Try play Teeter or Resco Bubble, in Resco Bubble the G-Sensor will stop response every few seconds. Anyone having the same error? Haven't try this on the 1.66 ROM though.
Teeter works fine here, on 1.66.
kilrah said:
Teeter works fine here, on 1.66.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi kilrah, can you try out Caver ageye.de/index.php?s=download, I tested on 1.66 ROM problem persist. Teeter playable, but not very responsive to the action. Many Thanks.
Yep, confirmed that caver will lock about 500ms at every sensor read from Lumos. I've reported it in the Lumos thread.
OK, seems a solution is to add the programs that cause trouble as exceptions in Lumos, as it then stops reading the light sensor. Works fine indeed.
Has anyone tried this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582059
kilrah said:
Yep, confirmed that caver will lock about 500ms at every sensor read from Lumos. I've reported it in the Lumos thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem also with g-invaders.
Sometimes tho, g-invaders hiccups at the beginning and after some time it works smooth
No problem with teeter as well, even if it seemed for a while that the gsensor woud lean towards the left side. Recalibrated and apparently no more problems.
Shasarak said:
Has anyone tried this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one of the first I found, but then I went straight to Lumos as it was so completely better
Shasarak said:
One minor niggle about the HD2 is that, while the auto backlight control is fairly good, instead of going from 10% to 100% depending on conditions, it won't go above 80% (I don't think) and certainly won't go below 30%, which is a bit too bright for artificial light, and much too bright for use in darkness.
So, as a quick work-around, I've added a start-menu short-cut to Windows\powerexe.exe - this lets me switch between auto and manual backlight fairly quickly. But it's still one more click than I think should be necessary: you launch powerexe, then have to click the "backlight" button. There must be a way of jumping straight into the backlight screen, because if you go manila settings/sound and display/backlight it jumps you straight there. Can I do that from a short-cut?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its simple: make shortcut on ["\Windows\powerexe.exe" 2]
karelia-molot said:
Its simple: make shortcut on ["\Windows\powerexe.exe" 2]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hooray!!! Finally someone actually answers my question! Thanks!
While the CM7 auto-backlight settings should function the same across supported devices, I do not know how the light sensor itself may differ. As such, some of what I write below may be specific to the Inc while the general concepts should be applicable to other devices.
Thanks to userjf for helping me better understand the effect of kernel choice on light sensor readings.
The CM7 automatic backlight settings can seem a bit intimidating at first: there are a lot of options for the user to tweak. Don't worry though: there is some very basic math being used and once you understand it, optimizing your settings becomes much easier.
The most important thing to realize right away is that the light sensor can only detect a fixed number of raw values. If you are using the stock kernel in nightly #26 (or later), then you should be able to read 10 values:
Code:
10, 160, 225, 320, 640, 1280, 2600, 5800, 8000, 10240
If you are using an older nightly, or a custom kernel that does not yet incorporate these extra levels, you will only be able to read 7 values:
Code:
160, 225, 320, 640, 1280, 2600, 10240
If you aren't sure what you have, go to the "edit other levels" portion of the CM7 backlight settings and then cover your light sensor. When the raw reading updates, you should see either 10 or 160, telling you which of the above two lists applies to you.
Since there are only 10 possible raw readings, setting up more than 10 custom levels is pointless, unless you also enable filtering. Filtering uses an average of raw readings to create new filtered readings, increasing the number of possible values.
The number of new values will be dependent on your window length and sample interval. If you select a window length of 30 seconds with a sample interval of 5 seconds, each filtered reading will now be based on the average of 6 raw readings (30/5). A quick example of this 30/5 filter involves walking from a room that has a raw reading of 640 to one that has a raw reading of 320:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Notice that the shift in filtered values is much more gradual than the shift in raw values. Given enough time, however, the filtered value will always return to a raw value.
If the filtered value always anchors back to a raw value, why enable filtering?
There are two primary benefits offered by filtering:
1. It can allow you to set up smoother brightness transitions (assuming you also increase the number of custom levels)
2. It can decrease the likelihood of screen flicker in mixed lighting
Point #1 should be relatively self-explanatory: since we now have interpolated light values, we can create intermediate screen brightness levels. Each of those values between 640 and 320 can trigger subtle changes in screen brightness, allowing for a smoother transition between them.
As for #2, you may find yourself in mixed lighting conditions that straddle two raw brightness levels. Without filtering, these raw levels may cause your screen to repeatedly shift back and forth between two brightness settings. I've found this can easily happen with artificial lighting as it is more directional than natural lighting. Sitting in your office, for example, you may find that simply shifting the angle at which you hold the phone changes the brightness reading.
With a filter in place, however, the effects of fluctuating raw values can be mitigated. This is true even if you don't create additional brightness levels. For example, using the stock values, let's look at what would happen if your sensor was getting raw readings back and forth between 640 and 320:
Notice that without filtering, the screen brightness jumps back and forth between 70 and 55, which can be very distracting. The filter, on the other hand, maintains a single value for the screen brightness, even under these fluctuating lighting conditions.
Of course, there may be times in which you want the screen to respond quickly to changes rather than slowly ramping. Moving from a dark building out in to broad daylight, for example, you don't want to watch your screen slowly brighten over the course of 30 seconds: those are 30 seconds in which your phone may be unreadable. This is where the reset threshold comes in handy. If a raw reading differs from your current average by this amount, the filtered value is immediately reset to the raw value. Finding the right value for your reset threshold allows you the best of both worlds: a screen that gradually changes based on subtle light changes, but responds rapidly to extreme changes.
"Allow light decrease" is a very simple option. If this is checked, your screen brightness will increase and decrease according to your custom levels. If it is unchecked, your screen will brighten as the light sensor reads higher values, but will never darken, even if the sensor detects that you have moved to a very dark area. I'm not quire sure why anyone would want to uncheck this, but maybe I'm missing something.
Finally, the hysteresis option is a bit of a mystery to me. That is, I understand the concept of hysteresis ("a retardation of the effect when the forces acting upon a body are changed"), but I don't see any difference in practice. In my testing, it doesn't matter whether I set hysteresis to 0% or 90% - my brightness values and resulting screen values behave exactly the same. If you are able to observe a quantifiable difference, please let me know your findings.
Putting this all together should hopefully give you a better idea of how to tweak your settings. If you want a screen that responds very rapidly to changes in ambient lighting, possibly at the risk of flickering, decrease your filter window (or disable the filter completely) and increase your sample interval. If you want a screen that never flickers, possibly at the risk of slow responsiveness, increase your window.
Note that any settings you choose can easily be modeled with some very basic math. Here are some example configurations and how they would play out:
Filter A: 10 second window, 2 second interval
Filter B: 20 second window, 2 second interval
Filter C: 30 second window, 2 second interval
Filter D: Same as Filter C, but includes a reset threshold of 2000
This is a pretty ugly graph, but hopefully it conveys the concept. Filter D is represented as a dotted line because it overlaps Filter C so much.
Note how the inclusion of a reset threshold on Filter D allows for immediate responsiveness under extreme light changes while still preserving the gradual shifts at smaller changes.
It's also worth noting a known issue at the time of this writing. That is, if you are using the screen on/off animations in CM7, any screen brightness changes will look more "jumpy." That is, if you change your screen from 100 to 150, either manually or automatically, the change will look like a switch was flipped. If you disable the animations, however, that same change from 100 to 150 will be smoother, with the system automatically scaling through the intermediate brightness levels. Even so, the change will be fairly quick, so it does not replace filtering: it's just a nice extra if you really prefer smooth brightness changes.
Once again a very informative write up. Thanks.
Thanks man. Very informative!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App
Here is some more information I have found out about the light sensor, and I really hope that some of you will find it interesting:
#1
If the filter is enabled, the raw value is polled about every 0.5 seconds.
If the filter is disabled, the raw value is only polled about every 2.0 seconds.
This is by-design within CM7, for whatever reason.
#2
The values are in "Lux", but they are multiplied by 10. So, 1000 is really 100.0
The sensor itself detects 0 - 1024, but CM7 shows them as 0 - 10240. (Multiplied by 10).
So, the sensor will max out in a bright room, and therefore can't detect any more brightness outside in a much brighter sunshine than it can in a bright room.
#3
The lux values in CM7, even when you divide them by 10, don't actually match the value reported by the light sensor. The light sensor driver has its own "10 values" that it pairs up with the CM7 "10 values".
The 10 values in the driver are not equal to the 10 values in CM7... but this only really affects you if you are trying to get an accurate measurement of light.
For example, the sensor may detect 50 lux, the driver rounds it up to the closest of the 10 driver values, for example "150", which might be the third number in the driver's 10 values. Therefore, CM7 would report it as 225, as 225 is the third number in the CM7 "10 values".
I'm not calling any of this information bugs or flaws... just interesting infomation for people that enjoy the technical part of things.
Very interesting info. Thank you, userjf!
One question:
userjf said:
If the filter is enabled, the raw value is polled about every 0.5 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the filter settings, the sample interval can be set anywhere from 0.5s to 10s. When you note the 0.5, are you listing the fastest value, or are you saying that interval setting is misleading?
If I set mine to 5s, for example, I don't see the raw (or filtered values) update for 5s. So it seems to work...
byrong said:
Very interesting info. Thank you, userjf!
One question:
In the filter settings, the sample interval can be set anywhere from 0.5s to 10s. When you note the 0.5, are you listing the fastest value, or are you saying that interval setting is misleading?
If I set mine to 5s, for example, I don't see the raw (or filtered values) update for 5s. So it seems to work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The poll to update the raw value with the filter enabled should still be 0.5 seconds, regardless of what you set that interval setting to.
The interval setting, I believe, is how often the filter will look at the raw value for calculation purposes. The raw value will continue to be pollled at 0.5 seconds when you are just watching the value yourself.
That is how I believed it to work, and trying it on my phone just now, it seems to work that way. Even when I set the interval to 10s, I can wave my phone around and see the raw value changing rapidly... but the filter will only check that raw value every 10 seconds for its internal calculations.
Please try again, setting the interval to a high number, going into a bright room, and watching the raw value as you cover and uncover your phone with the shadow of your hand.
userjf said:
Please try again, setting the interval to a high number, going into a bright room, and watching the raw value as you cover and uncover your phone with the shadow of your hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct, sir! Very interesting. I could have sworn that when I was doing testing on an earlier version of CM7 that the interval affected the speed of raw readings. Either that changed, or I'm simply misremembering.
Thanks again for the extra info!
Thank you so much! I've been looking for a breakdown similar to this for weeks. I've been itching to play around with the auto-brightness but the process made no sense to me.
Is there a way to backup/restore brightness settings between nightlies?
as long as you flash over nightlies and don't wipe they stay, but to answer your question directly no there are no backup options for these settings.
If you use Titanium Backup, there is an entry for [CM SETTINGS] CyanogenMod settings 2.3.3
That said, I'm not actually sure if it backs up the auto-brightness settings as I haven't needed to use it. I just flash over nightlies, and as noted by ctinsley, my settings remain intact between versions.
Great post byrong. I'm wondering about the screen dim level also. CM defaults to 20 but I took a look at Ultimate and it defaults at 10.
I started playing around with the levels, I added a couple and changed some levels but I really don't know how they effect real world performance. It seemed to me that the little book light in my completely darkened room would max out the raw data and if I added another level I was not able to increase the lux read level. I've deleted it all but I think I was up to around 8 or 10,000 with small book light. I set the brightness for that below 255. I figured daylight at the beach would be a lot more and wanted to set a level to max brightness for that. I could not enter anything higher than 10,000, If I remember correctly.
So does anyone have some good settings they can share?
marcmarshall said:
I'm wondering about the screen dim level also. CM defaults to 20 but I took a look at Ultimate and it defaults at 10.
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That's simply the lower limit to which your brightness can be set. I.E. if you leave it at 20 (which is the factory default), the phone will never dim past that level, even if you try manually. If you set it lower, then it will allow your screen to be set to that lower level when you want. It doesn't change performance of the auto-brightness: it only redefines the "minimum" brightness that the system will allow.
marcmarshall said:
It seemed to me that the little book light in my completely darkened room would max out the raw data and if I added another level I was not able to increase the lux read level.
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That's one of the limitations of lux meters, especially in an application like this. The meter is measuring luminous flux spread over a given area, and as such, the distance to the light source makes a world of difference.
A dim lamp could register full brightness on the meter if placed close enough to the phone, whereas a fairly bright room might register a lower lux value if the light is very diffuse.
byrong said:
That's simply the lower limit to which your brightness can be set. I.E. if you leave it at 20 (which is the factory default), the phone will never dim past that level, even if you try manually. If you set it lower, then it will allow your screen to be set to that lower level when you want. It doesn't change performance of the auto-brightness: it only redefines the "minimum" brightness that the system will allow.
That's good to know. I'll just set it in a pitch black room.
That's one of the limitations of lux meters, especially in an application like this. The meter is measuring luminous flux spread over a given area, and as such, the distance to the light source makes a world of difference.
A dim lamp could register full brightness on the meter if placed close enough to the phone, whereas a fairly bright room might register a lower lux value if the light is very diffuse.
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Yes, we have the inverse square law here. My concern was that the meter max's out at a level too low to tweak it well in bright outdoor conditions. These screens are so hard to see in sunlight that it might be non issue anyway.
Thanks again byrong
userjf said:
Here is some more information I have found out about the light sensor, and I really hope that some of you will find it interesting:
......#2
The values are in "Lux", but they are multiplied by 10. So, 1000 is really 100.0
The sensor itself detects 0 - 1024, but CM7 shows them as 0 - 10240. (Multiplied by 10).
So, the sensor will max out in a bright room, and therefore can't detect any more brightness outside in a much brighter sunshine than it can in a bright room.........
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I had missed that and I found that to be true. So set it up so you have smooth transitions and your indoor (low and intermediate) ambient light levels do not trigger screen brightness levels that are too low or unnecessarily bright.
Re hysteresis- this has me confused. In a system that has hysteresis you should not be able to derive the state of output without knowing the history of the inputs (or examining the state of the system). For example if a thermostat is set to turn a furnace on at 60 degrees and off at 75 degrees, you cannot know if the furnace is on or off when the temperature is 70 degrees unless you know the temperature history (or you look at the furnace). So by inference I assume that if we enable hysteresis the screen output level will somehow depend on the sensor input history and not simply on the real time value.
Edit- just took another look and I see that the hysteresis setting is not to enable/disable but to change a percentage. That doesn't make it any clearer for me, just sayin'.
Here its a screen shot of my current level settings. My screen dim level us set st 10, window length 10 sec, sample interval 2 sec. Any suggestions welcome!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Thanks for this educational post. It explains something that I didn't have a clue about before.
marcmarshall said:
Here its a screen shot of my current level settings. My screen dim level us set st 10, window length 10 sec, sample interval 2 sec. Any suggestions welcome!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
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I tried similar settings as above from another site. When I tapped "save & apply", the screen turned off and remained off! Now, my CM7 Legend boots up, shows the animation for a while, vibrates a bit, screen dims a bit, and then the screen turns off forever! I know it is still booted up and running, but the screen is just off!
What can I do to reset the backlight settings?
Please help. Thanks.
lokety said:
I tried similar settings as above from another site. When I tapped "save & apply", the screen turned off and remained off! Now, my CM7 Legend boots up, shows the animation for a while, vibrates a bit, screen dims a bit, and then the screen turns off forever! I know it is still booted up and running, but the screen is just off!
What can I do to reset the backlight settings?
Please help. Thanks.
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Do you have the brightness control in the drop down notification/power control area? If so try hitting the control blind from memory. If you can turn off auto brightness you should be good.
marcmarshall said:
Do you have the brightness control in the drop down notification/power control area? If so try hitting the control blind from memory. If you can turn off auto brightness you should be good.
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I'm not sure if I'm getting to the home screen, but I don't have the brightness control in the notification area anyway. I have a lock screen with an unlock pattern defined.
I doubt I'm getting there because I tried maxing the ringer and it doesn't beep as expected.
I'm hoping someone could point out what system file to replace as I can reach recovery and perhaps flash a new file there.